The present invention relates to an access right managing system, a portable terminal, a gateway and a contents server, and, more particularly, to an access right managing system for managing access rights, a portable terminal, a gateway and a contents server for providing various services.
The Internet has recently spread in which computer networks are connected to each other. Various kinds of information can be accessed by acquiring contents data stored in a contents server on the Internet using a portable terminal such as a portable telephone which is capable of communication in various modes. A user who uses a portable terminal to which an access right has been granted in advance by a system transmits a user identifier (hereinafter abbreviated as “ID”) and a password (hereinafter abbreviated as “PW”) uniquely set for the user before accessing desired information. Authentication on of the access right is made through such a transmission. The desired information can be accessed after the access right is authenticated. Hereinafter, such a system for managing access rights for providing various services is referred to as “access right managing system”.
A conventional access right managing system has a portable terminal such as a portable telephone for accessing various kinds of information and a contents server for providing contents data. In such an access right managing system, a portable terminal 11 to which an access right has been granted is connected to a contents server 12 through an Internet 10. After the connection is established, the user acquires desired contents data. The contents data can be displayed on a display unit of the portable terminal 11.
An access right is required to acquire various contents data on a contents server through a portable terminal. Prior to such an access, an application for service for authentication of the user of the portable terminal is submitted to the contents service manager. Such an application may be electronically sent to the contents service manager over the Internet or may alternatively be sent separately as a document using mail or the like. When the contents service manager receives the application, the server managing apparatus for managing the contents server registers the user for tolling. The server managing apparatus transmits a user ID and PW to the portable terminal as a permission for the user to make access. The server managing apparatus also sets the user registration in the contents server. The user who has received the permission can thereafter access to the contents of the contents server using the portable terminal under the user ID and PW to acquire desired request information.
In the conventional access right managing system, however, only a tentative user ID and PW are sent from the contents server manager to a user who has applied for use of the server in consideration to the problem of security. An official ID and PW are normally set after a registration period passes which is several weeks. Access to contents data can be made only after such setting is made. Therefore, a user must conduct tiresome operation of setting the official user ID and PW again.
Especially, when an access to contents is attempted using a portable telephone which acquires contents data described in the HyperText Markup Language (hereinafter abbreviated as “HTML”) or the Wireless Markup Language (hereinafter abbreviated as “WML”), no system for making user registration on a network has been established. Therefore, a problem arises in that no access to contents can be made until a registration period of several weeks passes after a registration for tolling.
Further, a rapid increase is expected in the future in the number of accesses to contents using portable telephones which are spreading at a remarkable pace. Therefore, if a registration operation is carried out at a contents server manager each time a user of a portable telephone makes a registration for tolling, registration operations are delayed to result in a delay in the time when users can start using the server. This also results in an increase in the managing cost at the contents server because there is a need for a capacity and a processing capability to manage access rights of increasing users.